Marine Drive

It is one of those phases in life when you get numb as a result of monotony , become slave of routine and end up being at boring best . I wanted to change this so ,i decided to get back to my first love, cycling!It never failed to enthuse and clear my clogged thought process.

So here i embarked on my 3 month old cycle , with my fancy headset on , started off around 4 am . As soon as i ventured out , was greeted by howls and incessant barkings of a pack of rowdy dogs .Quite peculiar is their behavior , during mornings they play "Jerry" , At the stroke of midnight they guard their territories like Afghan warlords and treat me like i am one English man in their Indian lands. Best way deal with them is to keep your head at one distant point and march ahead , despite their war-cries , i did the same . At a turning i took a rough census ,good god , around twenty of them .Was glad to escape their wrath.

After the unsavoury encounter ,Started cruising down the lanes , whizzing past early birds of the day, some had queer expressions when i met their eye , May be they don't understand my quest , or they would have wondered what on earth does this young man cycling for at this unearthly hour?Well, i answered them with similar queer looks.

Twisted , turned , rode with mad rage when i hit those roads which i normally would be waiting endlessly along with co-chennaittes cursing the signals and people who breach the yellow lakshman rekhas . There is some pleasure when you ride a bicycle , especially when you have the liberty to travel bothways , in a oneway, park in a noparkings, using the bell repeatedly indicating your grand arrival in every other turn and narrow alleys , But i didn't give specific attention to these pleasure giving details, which gave me immense pleasures during my school days.

The journey swallowed half-an hour and while Chennai still sleeping i entered the beach road , parked my suzuki carelessy and went towards the shore . The beach didn't look any different from 8 pm , the difference is, you can see sea of humanity sleeping on the sands at this hour ,which is normally occupied by sooth-sayers, forlorn singles , lovelorn Couples and other assorted groups in the society . It is actually bad to see those homeless people sleeping under their roofless bedrooms . But dare not ask them , during these hot hmonths ,Chennaites are put to greatest amounts of discomforts , they would do anything for a waft of fresh breeze .Considering the adjacent areas of the beach are congested , these people could be from those localities . Siphoning off with the aforesaid conclusion, i waited for Mr. Sungod to bath the sea with light.

It was around 5:30 am ,i realised that my wait is going to be wasted, for the sun hid behind the massive clouds for a long time .So, Headed home from the place which is a solace for every troubled human, the wonderful Marina bathed in morning light , faded faraway from my sight .

Reached home around 6:20 am , discounting the amount of time i spent relishing the tender coconut , it took 35 minutes to reach home and covered around 28 Kms .It was a refreshing ride and it did clear my clogged mind and am now well prepared for the adversities of life

Ashtama sanee

Yes! What happens when the staunch non-believer of astrology and its associated superstitions ,encounters a series of failures . And what remedial measures are suggested for course correction ? Hmm ..Yeah! i can hear people shouting astrology!! ( defects ) .

Yes!, my earthly existence is decided by some ruddy 9 planets [(a) sad that pluto is no more , but astro-gurus still use 9 b) Why no comets , i think they are cute with a tail c) Why not the asteroids, they aren't cute though d) why not the objects of the neighbouring galaxies? )] , And their eliptical ( path is altered and given some place along the veritices and edges of a star drawn on a small book , And This shall be my life-map which shall decide my social patterns, logical reasoning , marital prospects, core competence, and brighter n darker sides . Damn! i dont understand how is that possible . No i did not go through sufficient literature in astrology , But still i cant understand this astrological propositions and predictions . But , then i decided to get into the merits of astrology.

The recent predictions say June is moment of triumph in my life, and that is when all is going to be well .

fingers crossed !

P.S . for the uninitiated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani

bat and ball

Well,Mahathma Gandhi wouldn't 've ended 'march',if he had known 'April' is hotter...(please,ignore this statement)...In this heat one can only afford to be lazy, and stay indoors..but ,i tried to be different.i always fancy this sport,called cricket,and this fancy earned me a sun-tan! how??. I attended CTS practise match in Anna university grounds,hoping to be picked and squeezed into the playing eleven . got a few acquanitances in the team and came to know that most of the team mates were younger to me,after knowing this some sort of arrogance creeped into my timid mind..the team was divided and the play commenced .After the openers ate some initial overs, i was given a chance to wield the willow.. without formal exposure to standard cricket(Apart from viewing and cheering),i donned the pads and gloves and ehmm..what they called a bat..(i speculated the possible reasons for the absence of,the bottom chunk of the bat, given to me, could be..er (a)starving rats,that mistook bat for grains (b) rebellious termites,that dared to eat up the termite repellant bats)..so,with half a bat,and an uncomfortable diaphragm guard, stepped into the crease..the bowler,bowled his ball, which he thought over ,while i was getting ready, that ball, made me walk back to the place,from where i came with all eagerness to bat..A good-length ball,kept low sneaked in-between my bat and pad and found the stumps and dislodged it!Later, my bowling wasn't worth commenting,two wides!..hmm,well, to get selected in team, performance is a crucial factor,which didnt happen to me...
need to learn the intricacies of playing, with a cricket ball!..

Field of Vision

Where is sachin???..must be a the "Back"!!!!

The LANKANS were 54/5!..i visualized shreesanth , bowling a good length delivery pitching on the right spot and uprooting the stumps…huff! Undoubtedly, I m quite uncomfortable and restless when I don’t get to watch my favorite sport (cricket) on tv.. The television I own , dates back a long time in the past .. got to punch and slap very often to keep it going, for the past one week been practicing certain kung-fu and karate moves with my tv..as dumb as it is, received my blows with great honour! And gave us not a prolonged view ..And three days back, it conked !..i can see only a red light indicating that the current is still passing through the circuits.…oh dear what can the matter be! Oh dear what can the matter be!.. Yes! I am a media student, and I ‘ve acquired a decent bit of knowledge on working of various electronic components (my conscience pricked me when i typed the above sentence) and I know the intricacies of television and its working goes on like this , when something like electronic signals. Hitting drum like something called Cathode Ray Tube and it does some wonder to create visuals on the picture tube.. with this abundant knowledge in working of a television.. I thought of laying my hands on repairing my TV.. cricket matches ahead, mom’s anxiety with respect to those mega serials , dad’s movies. All came to a screeching halt last week!..phew! Frustrations galore!

Hmm.. Seriously, I doubted the dust accumulated over years inside the tv can be the possible reason for the TV’s malfunction. ..so, after dusting it, I expected the TV to function properly!..no it didn’t!.. I unplugged and and plugged all the wires, shifted the plugs to another switch board …no change!.. I twisted the co-axial cables nipped it fine plugged it again! Tapped! Punched! No change!.. my TV stood there dumb and docile !..so left it! Perhaps , it needs retirement after a long years of service!.. well,it had been a week since my efforts of making the TV to function!.. even today morning,I tried banging and slapping!.. nothing happened!....Lankans fixed a target of 260.. I visualized Mahela Jayawardene the Lankan captain fixing Dart boards at good distance..on the other side, team of Indian players stood with their Bow and Arrows targeting at bull’s eye hmm...ya kinda Ramayana only! Or can be like Robin Hood also......i saw the rest of the innings at my friend’s place!...

Keeping the worries of my TV’s redundancy, away.. watched the match..got absorbed into the intricacies of the game ..Sehwag re-gained his touch!.. Robin Uthappa being consistent and aggressive in playing shots and shining! .. some problem with Ganguly, hmm Chappel would 've already mailed to the board of selectors regarding Ganguly's fitness..and fat controversy to be staged for another month!..(hmm. too much of imaginaton,in the absence of TV!) so, what more does a aspiring team want?..of course a fit Tendulkar 1 he'll be back too.. so , chances of indians winning the cup is still bright as the summer sun!..Filling myself with delight of Indians winning, I took-off to my TVless home..while drivng back, I decided to call for a guy who repairs television ,professionally!..